Let's discuss one last verb in the ‘read’ series. The prefix по- adds the idea of ‘for a while’ to a verb, thus почитать makes the perfective verb ‘to read for a while.’ The derived imperfective is почитывать.

We often use the verb to describe the reading we do before bed.

One of the most fascinating things about Russian is its ability to add prefixes to verbs and nouns to give new meanings. For instance, the suffix до- can add the idea of ‘all the way to the end.’ If you add it to читать ‘to read,’ it forms a new verb дочитать ‘to read all the way to the end.’ Normally when you add a prefix to a simple, unprefixed imperfective verb, the new verb is perfective. Then to get an imperfective from the new verb, you add a suffix. In this case the suffix is -ыв-, which gives us the imperfective verb дочитывать. We call this type of verb a derived imperfective. Here is how it is conjugated.

This verb pair is used when you want to specify that you have completed reading something.

Sometimes the phrase «до конца» ‘to the end’ is added to the sentence. That may seem superfluous to the reader, but where is there a rule that says we can't say something more than one way or find another way to say it?

The verb doesn't have to mean that you get all the way to the end of the item, though. It can mean you get all the through to a certain point.

Be careful on that last one. It means that Pasha read chapter four but hasn't yet read chapter five.

The careful reader will remember that прочитать means ‘to read through.’ So what's the difference between прочитать and дочитать? Sometimes not much.

Before we leave this topic, I just want to mention how amazingly common this use of the prefix is. Here are some other examples.

Pretty neat, huh?

Today let's discuss читать/прочитать.

The prefix про- adds the idea of ‘all the way through’ here.

Now here is a subtle bit of grammar. If you want to find out if someone has read a particular book or author, you usually ask the question in the imperfective.

This is called the general-factual meaning of the imperfective (общефактическое значение несовершенного вида). When you are interested in the fact itself, not focusing on the completion of the fact, then you ask in the imperfective.

It is possible to ask the question also in the perfective, but it means something different.

Often when you learn a verb in Russian, it's helpful to learn the verb as a verb pair. One such pair is читать/почитать.

When по- is prefixed to many imperfective verbs, it adds the meaning of ‘for a while,’ as it does with читать. So the verb pair читать/почитать is good for indicating how long one reads.

For the most part one can't use bare accusative duration phrases with perfective verbs, but one exception is perfective verbs when по- means ‘for a while.’ ¹

Читать/почитать can also take a direct object, usually the thing you are reading or the author you are reading.

¹ Another exception is verbs prefixed with про- when it means ‘through a specific period of time.’

I have just realized that I have never blogged before about the word читать. Hm. Seems pretty basic, eh? Still, we can probably come up with something. Let's start with the basic imperfective verb.

The verb has several meanings, one of which is ‘to know how to read.’ In this sense it only has an imperfective, no perfective.

If you want to specify the ability to read a language, then add the language in the по- adverbial form.

Ah, that last little dialog is a cultural puzzle for the reader. In what well known series of novels can supernaturally gifted beings understand foreign languages without training? You may show off your knowledge in the comments.